Fascinating 125-Year-Old Photos Taken With ‘World’s First Consumer Camera’

The Kodak No. 1 camera, introduced by George Eastman in 1888, is arguably the world’s first consumer camera that allowed amateur photographers to document their lives with pictures.

Marketed to the average, non-professional shutterbug—with the now famous slogan “You Press the Button, We Do the Rest”—the Kodak No. 1 is a small, leather-clad wooden box that has been pre-loaded with 100 exposures.

To take a photograph, users simply have to wind the film, open the shutter and press a button—this nifty camera was also relatively affordable at that point, costing just US$25, which translates to about US$600 today.

Thanks to this innovative gadget, ordinary people were able to snap pictures of their everyday lives—the National Media Museum has uploaded a small collection of these pictures from the 1890s online, giving us a glimpse of what life was like back then.

Featuring both daily scenes in the city and vacation snap-shots at the seaside, you can view the entire collection of these vintage photographs taken by the Kodak No. 1 here.